Normal People
by RedWillow03
Summary: A girl finds out about Wally's secret and our favorite little speedster decides to help her with her own secret. Please read! warning: Spitfire fluff, mentions of child abuse, harm, and other angsty things.
1. The Secret

"Don't forget test on Tuesday." Brrrrrrriiiinnnnngggg, "Class dismissed." Wally let out a sigh of relief as he grabbed his backpack and left the classroom, his history teachers bland monotone voice was driving him crazy.

Ok so I just need to grab math and science books, eat lunch, and go to class all while hiding from bullies, then I'm homefree, he thought to himself as he approached his locker.

"Out of the way nerd?" Wally groaned as some brut knocked him into the lockers and walked away. He let out a deep breath and dusted himself off. It's not that he couldn't take the bullies, because he could he was Kid Flash after all, to him they were really more of a mild annoyance than a threat. Also, it was just a little funny, because they were so cliche; pushing people into lockers, hitting up nerds for lunch money, it was almost as if they were from a 90's movie or something.

He shut his locker, revealing the grinning face of one Steve Austin, "Hey! Guess what?" Wally rolled his eyes at how enthusiastic his friend was.

"Did you figure out cold fusion?" He grumbled blandly.

"Not yet but I'm one step closer, I convinced Donohue to let me rewrite my English Lit. paper! And now I won't have a D in English, meaning Harvard won't turn me down and then I can solve cold fusion."

"This time maybe try actually writing it." He commented back as he started walking towards the cafeteria.

"Well, I might have gotten it in on time if someone hadn't broken my computer." He shot Wally a sidelong glance.

"In my defense you were the one who said it was waterproof."

"One I said it was water resistant and two you were the one who wanted to see if it could float."

"So now it's my fault computers don't float."

The two continued bickering among themselves as they always did. Until Steve moved to turn left when Wally went right.

"I thought you had lunch this period?" Wally asked.

"I do but I gotta retake a test. See ya after though."

"Later."

He made his way through the chaos that was lunch and sat at his usual table in the back corner of the room. Wally started to unpack his lunch, but before he could get anything out from the corner of his eye Wally saw a girl, freshman maybe, being cornered by a few senior guys. Wally wanted to do something but he was, well a nerd. And besides, they couldn't do much more than scare her in a crowded room like this.

He was about to turn away when the same thing caught his eye again. A flash of light? Coming from the girl's hands? It was small not much more than some static maybe or...Wait what he looked a little closer her hands were in gloves. Shit.

Wally quickly speed over and pulled the girl away from the guys, and before the girl knew what was happening she was in the school's courtyard.

"What the hell. How did I get here, I was in the.."The girl looked around her eyes settling on Wally.

"Hi?" He sheepishly muttered. A million thoughts raced through his head, what did I just do? Oh god, this is gonna screw up a lotta things! Well at least there aren't any people around, that's a good thing. Who cares if there are people around, you just used your powers. You broke the only rule you have to follow. What the hell was I thinking.

"Hello?" The girl gave an awkward little wave and for the second time Wally noticed the gloves, they looked thin but sturdy and were leather. Not the fancy kind with fur lining in them that he had seen some other girls wear but just plain well worn black leather. The girl looked like she was trying to slowly inch away from the general area.

"So your wearing gloves."

She glanced up from her shoes. "Its winter."

"Yeah well, most people don't wear gloves inside."

She looked up again,"How did you know I was inside, and come to think of it why are you outside, it's freezing out, Mr. No Named Random Guy?" She crossed her arms and waited for an answer.

"Well um..I..Lets just..um say I saw those guys harassing you and got you out of there." Wally looked anywhere but at the girl as she looked him up and down, sizing him up.

"First of all thank you for that." She stated politely, before starting to pace around him in circles like a wrestler before a fight, "Although secondly the fact that you were able to get me out of their so fast means either; I fainted and hit my head there for leaving me with a concussion or the more likely option: that you are a metahuman who can A) make people lose their memory B) teleport or C) have super speed." He paled and was about to say something, but the girl wasn't finished yet, "And if in fact, you do have super speed, that would lead me to conclude that you are Kid Flash and as evidence of that I present your red hair and age, both of them prominent features of Kid Flash along with an urge to help people as you did help me."

"Who are you?" Wally gaped. Finally looking her over. She had regular brown hair, was average height and was quite possibly the most normal girl he had ever seen. Even her clothes were normal, if conservative. Just a plain denim blue blouse, a pair of black leggings and tan knee-high boots. The only thing that really stuck out to him were her eyes, they were bronze, speckled with amber.

"Just a girl with a few good observations." She stopped pacing, smiled and held out her gloved hand, "Mandy Evans, am going to be a PI one day."

"Wally West." Wally grinned at the girl, "Well Mandy," He sped over to a nearby tree and leaned against it, she jumped at the whoosh of air and turned around, "it seems you and I are going to have a little chat about the enormous elephant in the room."

"The fact that I'm right and you're Kid Flash." She smirked.

"Well yes that of course, but I'm talking about the fact that you're a metahuman too."

Mandy froze for the first time caught off guard, "..Wha..what are you talking about?" she stammered out after a second.

"Well first of all, no one wears gloves inside, and certainly not gloves like those. I've seen them before, they have a special carbon fiber to keep powers from leaving the glove, right?"She stuffed her hands in her pockets nervously and nodded sadly "I used to wear a bodysuit made of it when I first got my powers." He had a far-off look like he was reliving a painful memory, but he quickly shook his head and continued. "Secondly, its winter and the air around you is like a furnace. Also while you were pacing the snow around your feet melted a bit and got all slushy." She cursed under her breath, and let out an agitated sigh. "The final nail in the coffin was what made me want to get you away from those jerk guys, after all, it's not every day I just speed someone away. At least not like this that is." He gestured at his clothes.

He started to make his way towards Mandy and held out his hand. She shrank away from it taking two steps back, he took two forward, they kept going like that until she walked into a tree. "Mandy. Give me your hand." He spoke to her like a spooked animal, and surprising both him and her, it worked. She reluctantly held out one of her hands.

And slowly he removed the glove. Her hand burst into flames. "Damn it, damn it!" She started to try and blow her hand out, she shook it around and tried to use the other glove to cover it.

"Hey. Hey common look at me. Breathe just breathe." She did and slowly the flame disappeared. She held her hands to her chest and all but collapsed onto the tree behind her sliding down its bark onto the frost covered ground. She started to cry a little.

Wally looked at the glove in his hand more carefully, examining it. "There's a small rip in the carbon layer. That's why I saw a spark from your hand earlier." He looked up and saw her sitting on the ground crying.

He sat down next to her, handed her back the glove and gave her a hug. "It's going to be ok. Everything's fine."

Once she had calmed down a bit more. Wally looked at her, "What?" She asked saltily.

"Are you free after school?"

"Wait...like a date because if you think you're getting a date out of this then you are very very wrong."

He smiled, "No I have some friends I want you to meet."

"No." She stood up brushed away the final tears and started to make her way to the door back to the cafeteria.

A little put off by her answer Wally quickly speed over and blocked her path, "What do you mean no?"

Mandy furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms, "What I mean is no. I will not go and join some group of superheroes who help me get my life together and then we all become amazing friends and go flying off into the sunset in spaceship or what ever your offering me. I have a plan for my life and this," She held out her hands, "is a mild inconvenience. I will get new gloves and figure out how to do this on my own. Not everyone wants to be a hero Wally. Some of us just want to live our lives out in peace!"

Wally was so taken aback by how angry she was that he stepped aside and just watched as Mandy stomped away.

She was about to open the door, but hesitated and before she could stop herself Mandy turned around with a shaking voice that held no apologies and said, "Don't forget I knew your secret. If you tell anyone I swear every news outlet in the country will know the truth about Wally West."

Then she opened the door and left Wally standing there, alone in the cold.

 _Yeah! So that was my first chapter and I hope you like it! Please, tell me what you think. Thanks,_

 _-RedWillow03_


	2. What Do I Do Now?

After a few minutes in the cold Wally slowly walked back into the cafeteria and sat down, "Where ya been?" Steve asked as he sat down.

"I had to do a few things and I thought you had a test?" He frowned still thinking about what Mandy had said to him.

"I did but it was so easy only took like ten minutes." He answered cheerfully. "What's up with you, you seem I don't know, sadish?"

"Nothing just something someone said to me." Wally sighed.

"Ok then." Steve didn't look convinced but let the topic go anyway.

The bell rang a few minutes later and the two of them left for class.

* * *

"Kid Flash b03" The computer voice spit out as Wally made his way out of the zeta tube. He looked around a little confused, no one was there. Usually, M'gann was making cookies, Kaldur reading a book, Connor watching static, but today the cave seemed like a ghost town.

He did a quick run through the cave making sure no evil robots had broken in again. When he finally came to the training room he heard someone.

"Hello?" He called as he walked in. The noise stopped and Artemis turned around from the punching bag.

"Hey. What are you doing here, no training this week the league is doing that super secret thing we weren't invited to, remember?" She grabbed a water bottle from next to her bag and took a sip.

"I thought that was next week."

"Next week is this week." The archer rolled her eyes.

"So if there's no training what are you doing here and where's everyone else?"

"I think M'gann dragged Connor to the mall, Kaldur's visiting Atlantis this week and Rob's doing something with the Bat."

"And you?"

"We don't all have powers, some of us actually have to train. And the stuff here is way better than what GA has."

"Oh well bye then." Wally sighed and turned around to leave.

Artemis frowned, something was up with the speedster. She threw a shoe at him, "Spar with me."

"Not in the mood Artie." He grumbled, threw the shoe back at her and walked toward the door.

"I don't really care if you are, I need a partner and that punching bag ain't gonna cut it." She picked up her bow from the corner and shot off an arrow. It just barely missed his arm.

He froze turned around, and the two started to circle each other. Artemis made the first move, sweeping his legs out from under him, in an attempt to throw him off balance.

He swiftly righted himself and swung for Artemis' head, she dogged, grabbing Wally's arm-twisting it behind his back then forced him down on the ground.

Artemis let go of his arm, "What is up with you today? That was me going easy."

Wally groaned as he got up off the ground, "Nothing. I'm just having a bit of a day is all."

Artemis furrowed her eyebrows and looked him over, "Alright, what kind of day are you having?"

"Why do you care and either way you can't do anything about it."

"Well I don't care, but I'd still like to know." Artemis replied, trying to feign disinterest.

"Fine alright, I learned something about a person and they know something about me and now they're blackmailing me into keeping their secret."

"Is this hero stuff or normal life stuff."

"It's a weird mix."

"Will this secret of theirs destroy the world or just the prom?"

Wally chuckled a little, "Neither it's more like it's only hurting them."

Artemis sat down on the mat they had been sparing on, and Wally took that as an invitation to sit down too. "So your friend is keeping a secret that only hurts them and you're worried about them?"

"Yeah, and if I tell anyone their secret they will tell everyone my secret." He let out an exhausted sigh, at finally telling someone his conundrum.

"Wait as in your secret of being a hero?" Artemis gaped.

"Yup. I got myself into a real pickle this time."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Honestly I don't know. I mean am not that worried that she'll tell everyone about my identity because she knows if she tells then I'll tell everyone about her secret. So it kind of creates a standstill."

"So this friend of yours is a girl. Hummmm." Artemis rolled her eyes, "Please tell me you didn't tell her you're a superhero to impress her or something because if you did this whole thing is kinda your fault."

"First of all even I'm not that stupid and secondly she found out my thing all on her own kinda. Besides she's not really my type."  
"Anyway back to the point. What should you do, I'm assuming this girl either has some sort of problem and is keeping it secret or is like a supervillain if she's a supervillain I say have M'gann wipe her memory and throw her in jail. But if it's the first then I say help her with this problem."

"I tried to help her but she doesn't seem to want my help when I offered she looked pretty insulted then walked away and threatened to tell everyone about me if I told anyone about her."

"Then find another way to help her. Try a peace offering or an apology. Try to get her to talk to someone it doesn't have to be you and get her to let someone help her. Either way, do it on her terms." Artemis checked her watch. "Dang it I really gotta go, good luck with your girl." She quickly grabbed her things and headed for the door.

"She's not my girl!" Wally called after her, "And Artemis."

She paused, "Yeah Wally?"

"Thank you." Artemis gave a little nod then headed out the door.

 ** _So I hoped you all liked this! If I get four comments then I'll release the next chapter on the 13th, rather then on 18th! Also just so you know, the next chapter is all about Mandy and her life. So look forward to that. Have an amazing day!_**

 ** _~RedWillow03_**


	3. A Detectives Story

_Bring_. _Bringgg._

Mandy's locker crashed as she slammed it closed. She was still fuming from the talk with that red-headed, ball of stupid lightning. And now she was late for class. Great. Just great.

She made her way through the crowded halls and stomped all the way to her AP Calculus class. She opened the door and shrank under the glares of her fellow classmates. They may be in the same class but she was not their mate or any sort of friend. She was a bug, an inconvenience to them. A freshman taking college-level math.

"Ms. Evans glad you decided to join us. I was just explaining to the class what a limit was, would you like to finish for me?" Mrs. Sanchez scowled.

"No, ma'am." Mandy shook her head.

The woman smirked and gestured to the class,"Alright then take your seat."

She quickly made her way to her usual seat in the very back corner of the room. Then opened up her book and pretended to listen, but Mrs. Sanchez's voice just droned as Mandy thought about what happened at lunch.

Like seriously what right did he have to tell her how to live her life. She was managing fine on her own and didn't need his pity or help or whatever else he was offering. All she had to do was focus on her classes maintain her perfect 4.5 GPA graduate two years early then off to college where she could finally pursue her passion. She'd solve cases and go to crime scenes and take incriminating pictures of criminals.

Since she'd been six and played Clue it was all she wanted to do. And everything was great, amazing even, then one day like a month ago her hands burst into flames. Like first of all why!? There was absolutely no reason that anyone's hands should burst into flames. Ever.

After several minutes of fervently trying to put them out, she ended up sticking them in ice water, though she nearly burnt down the kitchen trying. When her parents came home, they first of all didn't believe her and thought maybe she was crazy or had a psychotic break. They sat her on the couch, and started talking to her about stress and sleep when again her hands burst into flames.

Then they started freaking out and after putting her hands out again her parents decided to wrap her them in tin foil. A lot of it. If the situation hadn't been so shocking Mandy would have laughed.

Then they sent her upstairs to sit in the bathtub which they had filled with ice and water so they were sure she wouldn't burst into flames. She was pretty annoyed... and cold for that matter, but it wasn't like she had a huge say in this.

The rest of the night she listened through an air vent in the bathroom floor to what her parents were talking about. They, of course, knew about metahumans and the Flash and all the villains he fought. Sure they knew that Central City villains weren't as bad as Gotham or Star but that's not what they wanted for her, to become so second-rate rouge.

So they searched the internet all night for some way to stop it from happening. They couldn't find any but they did find a black market website of sorts selling some sort of special gloves. Apparently, some Forensics Scientist at the Central city police department had created a version that was used in prisons and someone else had created a black market version for criminals to use for a variety of scrupulous actions.

The only problem was how much they cost. So like all people they set out to find a better deal and believe it or not someone was selling a few pairs on eBay for a fraction of the black market ones. They weren't new and seemed a bit worn out, but they would work. Or at least her parents hoped they would.

When her parents went upstairs to the bathroom to tell Mandy the _good_ news they entered to find her asleep in an empty bathtub. All the water had boiled away and her skin was hot to the touch. This only worried them more.

When they told her about the gloves, she was... happy? Truthfully she didn't know how to feel. But if this would make it so she didn't have to sleep in the bathtub with foil hands then so be it.

The shipping for the gloves took a few days so her parents told the school Mandy had a horrible rash on her hands and they were getting it tested. They had all previously agreed that the cover story for her wearing the gloves at school would be a skin disease, non-contagious of course, that could not be exposed to light. It was only on her hands and the gloves made it so that it didn't get any worse.

Her parents made other precautions too, they had a fire extinguisher in every room. The sheets on Mandy's bed were fire blankets. And everyday they sprayed the whole house with the special spray that goes on Christmas trees so they don't catch on fire. All of Mandy's clothes were also sprayed with it and the house was now always as cold as it could be.

The precautions seemed a little overboard to Mandy sometimes, but she knew her parents had her best interest at heart and if it made them feel safer around her then she was happy to comply.

* * *

"Hi, sweetie how was school?" Her mom asked as Mandy walked through the door.

"Good." She muttered, "I have to go do some homework, I'll see you at dinner."

Her mom frowned but just answered, "Ok?" And continued chopping vegetables.

She climbed the single flight of oak steps that lead to the upstairs and turned the corner to her bedroom. The door creaked open and she took a quick glance around what used to be her room.

Her room used to feel cozy and warm, but now it felt claustrophobic and cold. The piles of fuzzy blankets that used to top her bed were replaced by the metallic sheen of fire blankets. Her shelves full of old, well worn Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes novels had been taken away to make room for fire extinguishers and retardant. The drapes that used to hang on the window were taken away; deemed too much of a hazard by her parents. And it wasn't just the drapes and books, anything that seemed likely to catch on fire was put into the basement for storage, all her old stuffed animals, her bedside table, even her floor rug.

The worst part was when they took away all the lights in her room; explaining to her that they gave off to much heat, they left only one single light bulb, hanging from the center of the room. When Mandy looked around her she didn't see a bedroom anymore, what she saw was a prison. A cold, unforgiving prison.

She collapsed onto her bed, finally allowing herself a moment. But the moment didn't last long as she knew she had work to do. She quietly sat up and walked over to the mini fridge her parents had insisted on putting in her room so she could keep a cold bucket of water in case anything ever _happened_ , as they liked to put it.

She pulled out the bucket and put it on the floor, then with a trembling hand started to remove one of her gloves, cringing; carefully holding her hand away from her body. She stared at her degloved hand for a moment, relieved that it hadn't flamed up as she had taken to calling it. But just as she relaxed it burst. Mandy grumbled and rolled her eyes.

"You just had to do that, didn't you. Couldn't be a normal hand for just a moment could you." She sighed and put her hand in the bucket waiting for it to go out and till she was sure it wouldn't do it again. After a minute or so she patted her wet hand on her pants to dry it then picked up the needle and thread from her dresser.

Mandy carefully examined the glove looking for the rip Wally had pointed out earlier. She found it in the palm and breathed a sigh at how tiny it was. Barely a centimeter in length but just enough to let a few sparks out. Then she thread the needle and sewed the glove together. It didn't look as good as it could have but it was easier than buying a new pair.

"Mandy, dinner's ready." Her mom called not long after.

"Alright, mom I'll be down in a second." Mandy shut her eyes and mentally prepared herself for dinner, maybe this time it would finally feel normal again. Maybe they wouldn't be weird like they had been since the thing happened. Maybe they could be a family again.

* * *

"So Bob, how was work? Did Shawn turn those reports in on time or did he ask for another extension?" Her mom tried to make small talk, but the dinner table was way past awkwardly silent.

"Uhm yeah he did; not very surprising though, knowing him." Her father blandly responded.

"And Mandy, didn't you say you had a Biology test today?" The smile plastered on her mom's face was so forced.

"That was last week," She mumbled to her dinner plate. "But I got my grade back and I got an A." She offered hoping for something other than what she was getting.

"Well, that's nice dear."

Another awkward silence passed over the three of them till Mandy just couldn't take it anymore. She abruptly stood and "I'm going to bed." She started to move when her mother.

"Mandy.." She was about to grab Mandy's wrist to stop her seeing how upset her daughter was when she hesitated and at that moment Mandy knew that her parents would never see her the way they had before. The three of them would never have family movie nights with too much popcorn or make giant sand castles on the beach then destroy them for the fun of it and she would never spend Christmas making cookies with her mom or act like a food critic at a fancy restaurant with her dad. It wouldn't go back to normal...it couldn't go back to normal she realized and a shiver went down her spine.

Mandy turned around a gave her mother a look, "What?!".

"Nothing." Her mom muttered shrinking back into their seat. When Mandy looked in her mother's eyes she saw fear and that hurt more than anything.

She climbed the stairs, climbed into her crinkly metallic sheets and waited for morning.

 _ **Hi everyone so this is my chapter and I really hoped you all like Mandy's backstory! I had a lot of fun writing this and the next chapter should be really good too. It's short so I'll be posting it sooner! Probably Wednesday. Have an awesome week!**_

 _ **~RedWillow03**_


	4. Compromise

"I'm sorry."

"Wait what?" Mandy turned around from her locker and saw Wally standing in front of her it took her a minute to remember what he had to be sorry for and immediately, the anger she had felt the day before was back like a raging inferno. Her eyebrows furrowed and she bluntly replied, "You should be."

Turning away she shut the door and walked to her first-period class. After a few steps, Mandy turned around and saw Wally trailing behind her. "I know that and I'm sorry. It's just I'm worried…" He was about to go on when he realized they were holding up foot traffic.

Mandy rolled her eyes, but didn't want to be overheard, "Follow me."

"Thank you for hearing me out." Wally groveled as he followed her through a throng of people and a series of corridors and hallways finally ending with a rickety door in the old wing of the school. "Woah, this is so cool!" He exclaimed taking in the cozy, but comfortable room. It was mostly bookshelves but there were also several tables with chairs around them.

"You have one minute. Go", Mandy crossed her arms and waited while he just stood there dumbfounded. "Well.. I'm waiting." He blinked remembering what he had to do.

"Imsorrylikereallysorryiknowwhatididwaswrongandshouldhaverespectedyourpsersonalspace,andyouweretotallyrightbythewayiwasgoingtointroduceyoutomyfriendswhojustsohappentoalsofightcrimeandsomeofthemhavepowerstosolikesorryagainandnowiseethelookonyourfaceyoucantunderstandmecanyouwellshitnowihavetostartallover."

"What?!" She asked, "I didn't understand any of that."

"Yeah.. I realize that now. Can I start over?"

Mandy huffed, "Fine, but seriously I have class in like five.", She was starting to lose what little patience she had left.

"Ok, well I know I was a really awful person yesterday and that I shouldn't have asked you to meet my friends and everything. It's just that... like.. I'm worried about you," Her face softened a bit and he continued, "I know how hard it can be to keep a secret like yours. And to add to it I'm scared you'll hurt someone…" Wally hesitated for a moment, "probably yourself by repressing your powers. I know you don't want to acknowledge them but they're not going away and sooner or later something's going to happen and you won't know how to deal with it. I'm just trying to look out for you. Ok?"

"Ok." Mandy breathed out slowly.

"So, you'll let me help you with your powers?" He grinned eagerly.

"What! No." Her eyebrows shot up, that was not what she had meant at all, "I acknowledge that you are worried about me and I accept your apology, but there is no way in Hell I'm doing that."

Wally's face twisted in confusion, "Why not?"

She let out a tired sigh, did she really need a reason?," Because I said so, Wally. I told you I can deal with this by myself and that's what's going to happen. If you want to worry about me then that's your problem." She turned to leave.

"Wait."

Even more annoyed than before she stopped and waited, "What if I introduce you to someone," Mandy was about to say she already said no but he got their first, "Not one of my super hero friends."

"Will you drop the subject if I say yes?"

"Yes, just talk to her for a few minutes." His eyes pleaded with her till she finally gave in.

"Ok but only once. Got it?"

"Great! So does after school work. We could meet back here?" He offered

"Sure fine whatever."

"Also where is here, I've never seen this room before."

"After the new library was built like forever ago, they kind of just abandoned the old one, I found it a while ago when I got lost. Anyway, I have class. I'll see you after school, I guess." She picked up her backpack and rushed out the door, just as the bell rang.

 _Wow! I kinda disappeared for a while. Sorry about that finals are so annoying but don't worry summer is coming and I'll have plenty of time to write. So please give feedback and tell me what you think! Also, check out some of the other stuff I've written. And finally, its almost time for Young Justice, Outsiders and the new DC Streaming service so get excited about that!_

 _~RedWillow03_


	5. An Understanding

"Finally! I've been waiting for like half an hour." Wally exclaimed as Mandy opened the door to the old library.

She raised an eyebrow, "Class ended like three minutes ago?"

"I have absolutely no concept of time." He retorted.

"Clearly." She rolled her eyes, "Can we please just get this over with I have to be home by six."

"Geeze ok, someones a grumpy cat." He picked up his bag from the ground started to walk out the door, Mandy begrudgingly followed.

After like a solid four minutes of holding her question back she couldn't anymore, "Sooo..gonna clue me in on where we're going?"

"Nah, surprises are more fun." He stopped walking, "Ready?" He asked as if she was supposed to know what to be ready for.

She looked around, they were about a block away from the school, no one was around "Ready for what?"

"Well we're definitely not walking there, I figured I could just speed us over, you know faster that way." He shrugged.

"Uhm, how about no." Mandy was already letting him take her to some random place. She wasn't also going to let him take her there without being able to get a general idea of where the place was. "We'll be taking the bus."

Wally's face fell, "Come on Mands you're killing me, the bus really. But it's so slow!"

"It's also energy efficient. Do you want to kill the planet, Wally?" She pulled out a bus schedule from her backpack, "What's the address?"

"Me running us there would be way more energy efficient and don't play the killing the planet card. Not taking a bus is not going to destroy the whole world."

"Address now." She practically demanded it.

He took a deep breath and remembered what Artemis had said 'Do it on her terms',"All right, fine we'll take the bus, give me a sec to find the address." He pulled out his phone and looked it up. "Ok, it's 11874 Sycamore Drive."

"Great, that's only a fifteen-minute ride from here." Mandy cheerily smiled.

She started towards the bus stop down the street. The two of them walking in an awkward silence. "Sooooo. How's school going?" Wally asked trying to break the ice and tension.

"Fine." She simply answered as they crossed the street.

"You're a freshman, right?"

"Yup." The silence dragged on.

"Ok then."

They finally made it to the stop, and a few other people waited patiently for the bus. "Are you gonna tell me where we're going?" Mandy spoke up.

"Nope." He answered, with a smirk on his face. The bus arrived and a few people got off before the two of them hopped on. There were only a couple of people on the bus not including themselves.

Mandy shrugged off her backpack, pulled out a notebook and started to write in it. "Whatcha got their." Mandy just rolled her eyes and kept writing. "Fine don't talk to me," Wally grumbled staring out the window. He glanced back over and looked at the notebook. "AP Chemistry?" He asked.

"Yeah , how'd you know?" She responded, a bit surprised.

"We're balancing equations too. I have her third period."

"Fourth. And I thought you were a Sophomore."

"I thought you were a Freshman?" He raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms and gave her a smug look.

Mandy blushed, "Well I may take a few advanced courses."

"Such as?" He probed deeper.

She smirked, "Such as none of your business." She returned her to the notebook. Wally stared blankly out the window. A few minutes passed in silence. And without looking up from her work Mandy quietly asked, "You never answered my question, I thought you were a sophomore?"

Realizing that it was Mandy's nature to want an answer he shot her a sidelong glance, "I'm a bit of a science prodigy." He said. A second latter adding, "You know chemistry, physics all that stuff, it's kinda my thing. Actually, it's how I got my..you know." He gestured at his shoes.

Upon hearing this Mandy quickly looked up from her work, and intensely stared at the speedster beside her. She pursed her lips thinking, then jotted down a few notes in the back of her notebook.

Before Wally could ask what she had written down or why she was staring at him, the bus driver called out there stop and the two of them grabbed their stuff and exited the bus.

Mandy looked around, "Which way?"

"This way." He started walking down a street lined with picture perfect houses.

After a few lefts and rights, they finally made it to the house, Mandy stood for a moment taking in every square foot. It was a white farmhouse that seemed freshly painted, the windows were accented with navy blue shutters and a white picket fence surrounded the property. The walkway was lined with flowers and there wasn't a stone out of place.

Wally started up the walkway, and turned back, "You coming?"

Mandy blinked out of her thoughts, "Yeah."

 _Knock! Knock!_ Wally racked the silver door knocker. Behind the door barking and running started and about a minute later a harried woman opened the door an inch, while simultaneously trying to hold back an excited labradoodle.

"Gimme just a second." The woman said before the door slammed shut and they heard yelling at assumably the dog. The door opened again, fully this time and revealing a smiling face. Though fairly young, the face held many worry lines and wrinkles, but also laugh lines and bright blue-grey eyes that still held a glimmer of childlike wonder in them. "Sorry about that," She sighed "Charlie can get a bit excited sometimes. Come on in." She moved out of the doorway and gestured for them to follow.

Mandy hesitantly followed with Wally behind, the woman led them to a small but cozy breakfast nook in the kitchen. "Where's Stacy?" Wally asked glancing around.

"In the backyard with Charlie. I figured she didn't need to be here for this." The woman answered.

"I'll just go hang out with her then and leave you two to it." He smiled kindly and headed to the sliding door on the edge of the kitchen.

It took all of Mandy's will not to beg him to stay. What was he doing leaving her alone with this random lady who still hadn't introduced herself or said how she knew Wally or what they were going to talk about? How the hell did I get myself into this situation? Again! She thought to herself.

"Soooooo…..hi?" Mandy quietly muttered after a moment.

"Hi." The woman raised an eyebrow. "I'm Veronica ."

Mandy nodded awkwardly, "Mandy." Another minute or so of strained silence passed before Mandy softly asked, "Ummmmmm….so what am I doing here?"

Veronica laughed, "Of course, leave it to Wally to randomly drag you to a strangers house and leave you alone." She smiled. "He told me about your little.." she paused searching for the right word. "..problem? He thought that maybe I might be able to help, though I'm not really sure in what way."

Mandy's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Thinking to herself, 'What the hell!? He promised he wouldn't tell anyone,... wait he never promised I just kinda threatened him….well shit.' she mentally scolded herself for not making him promise not to tell anyone. Realizing she hadn't yet responded to Veronica, Mandy quietly asked, "What did he tell you?" She hesitantly replied.

"Just the basics really," A kettle whistle blew from the stove, "Would you like some tea?" She asked, gesturing for her to take a seat at the table. Mandy nodded. "He said that he'd just met you and weren't really dealing with your powers."

Mandy's eyebrows rose again, how dare this woman comment on how she chose to live her life. "I'm dealing with my powers fine." She muttered, crossing her arms.

"From what I hear your not." She poured the steaming water into two mugs. "Lemon or Earl Gray?"

Mandy a bit off put by the woman's assertiveness, mumbled a quiet "Lemon, please."

Veronica picked up the two mugs and made her way to the table, sitting in the chair across from Mandy."Trust me, Mandy, I've been where you are." Veronica looked at Mandy's gloved hands on the table. Noticing Veronica's gaze Mandy moved them under the table and into her lap.

"I was just like you, ya know." Veronica commented, "Granted I was twenty-eight, and have different powers, but the reaction, the way your handling it I was exactly the same."

Mandy raised an eyebrow, "What can you do?" Veronica leaned in conspiratorially like she was about to share a secret. She placed her hands on the table and then they just went through it. Like the table was air. Mandy's eyes widened. "Wow." She said with a tired sigh, "That's amazing, but that's nothing like my powers you don't burn everything you touch." Mandy silently stared at her cup of tea.

"You know what I hate?" Mandy looked up, and Veronica continued. "When people always assume getting powers is the best thing ever. It's like they don't think of the practical parts. Like if you have super hearing. What happens when you try to sleep? You hear everything, thats what and can't fall asleep. Or if someone can feel anyone they touch emotions, it must suck when they're in a crowded room or on the bus. But when I told my husband about my powers, he thought about everything." She rolled her eyes, "And when I say everything I mean _everything_."

"What happened?"

"Well it was, I believe the same day or day after I realized I had powers, something like that I have the worst memory, I told my husband I could walk through walls and phase my hands through stuff." Veronica looked out the window as if she were reliving a memory. "Naturally he didn't believe me at first, but then I showed him and he got well..I guess scared is the best way to put it. As soon as he realized I wasn't crazy _he_ decided we had to figure out what I could do, so we did fake little tests, what could I phase through? Answer everything. How long could I stay phased through something for? A few minutes on a good day. And so on and so on. Then he started to slowly replace a lot of the glass wear in the house, in case I ever accidentally phased and I was holding something, so it wouldn't break. It was really the small things like that." She paused taking a breath, "It wasn't until one day he wouldn't let me pick up our baby, that I started to notice what he was doing, but I let him keep doing it, after all it was for the best." Veronica started to tear up a bit, "A few days after that a package arrived in the mail, it was a jumpsuit, made of some material I can't remember. He said that if I wore it I could hold the baby and everything would go back to normal. I put on the suit and it...it hurt alot." Her voice cracked, and the emotion in the room was nearly palpable. "It was like the suit was shocking me and it was almost like... a part of me was dying inside." Wiping away a tear she said, "After no more than a minute in that suit I through it off, my husband asked why I had taken it off and I said it hurt me. He responded saying, if I didn't wear the suit I couldn't be trusted not to drop anything or pick up our daughter. After that I realized he was taking away little pieces of me and dimming my light, taking away what made me special. That very night I kicked him out and filed for separation. That same night I also hired a live-in nanny, I thought that on some level my husband was right. I couldn't be trusted to take care of our daughter.

And for a few months I watched from the sidelines; as she rolled over, learned to crawl and then she walked... and instead of running to me she went for the nanny. I lost it again. He was still controlling my life, and I was allowing him to scare me into not being there for the big moments." She smiled a bit, "It was like one of those stupid commercials for diarrhea medicine or for back pain. You know the ones that show a sad person who can't go to the big graduation or wedding cause their back hurts or they have a migraine, and taking that medication will put your life back together. It was just like that only the medicine I had to take was realizing there was nothing wrong with me and I was perfectly capable of taking care of my daughter." Mandy raised an eyebrow, "Sorry," Veronica smiled, "that doesn't make a whole sense, but I think you get what I mean. Anyway back to the point, after that I fired the nanny, then immediately rehired her cause I still needed someone to watch her during the day. I also took two weeks off work to get back in touch with myself and figure everything out. I went to mommy playgroups and dog parks. Basically I kinda just got my life together again and found out who I was with this power I had." Veronica smiled, "Turns out I'm exactly the same person."

Both of the women, sat there silently reflecting on the story, "And now?" Veronica tilted her head, confused. "I mean what are you doing now?"

"Ohhhh. Now I'm a management consultant for a few different companies, and work from home a lot to take care of Stacy, she just turned six last week." Veronica glanced behind Mandy at the sliding door. Mandy followed her gaze and saw Wally tied to a chair with a jump rope, a blond little girl in a purple princess dress ran around him magic wand in hand, and Charlie chasing after her. It was quite a sight and made both of them giggle.

Returning to the conversation,"So you don't like work for the Justice League or government?"

"Heavens no, that sounds awful. Besides I have a daughter and a job I love very much." Veronica replied.

"So then how do you know Wally?"

"Oh, yeah that... he was stalking me." Mandy's mouth dropped to the ground, "Sorry.. no. Let me finish, it wasn't in a weird way. A couple of weeks ago I was running to my car and dropped my keys in the storm drain, so I phased my hand through to get them. I guess he saw me do it and assumed I was an evil psychopath, so he followed me home. Then after a while, I saw him, hiding in my bushes, which wasn't that hard. He's awful at hiding and seriously he wears bright yellow, how could I not see him. I invited him inside then we started talking, Wally'd never seen a nonevil meta before so he was flabbergasted, to say the least. He gave me a phone number in case I ever needed help with anything. And as it just so happened, a few days later my babysitter canceled last minute and I had to leave for a meeting so on a whim I called the number, Kid Flash told me he was sending someone over, and it was Wally. I came back end of the night paid him and told him he needed a better costume. Seriously who does he think he's fooling, I knew he was Kid Flash the second he walked through the door."

"I think its the red hair."

"It's definitely the hair." She nodded in agreement and smiled. "Anyway after that, he became my regular babysitter cause he's so great with Stacy."

"So what now?" Mandy asked, looking down at her now cold cup of tea.

"What do you want to do Mandy? You're too smart not to realize you can't keep going like this, sooner or later you're going to have to address your powers," Veronica reached behind her and grabbed a pen and paper, then scribbled down a number. "And when you're ready to I'll be here." she passed over the sheet of paper and Mandy begrudgingly took it.

She glanced at the clock on the microwave, "Shit is that the time?" Veronica nodded. "I gotta go." She briskly walked over to the sliding door and opened it. "Wally, we gotta go."

"Got it." He stood up from his jump rope shackles, "See ya next week Stacy." He waved and followed Mandy out of the house.

"Thank you again, Ms.V." He said as she opened the door for the two to leave.

"No problem Wally, anytime."

"Ok so we're gonna have to run to make it to the bus stop on time, but we should be good from their."

"Alright , whatever you say." Mandy rolled her eyes and took off running towards the bus stop. Wally followed after at a brisk jogging pace. When she finally made it to the stop a few minutes later, she turned around to see Wally as he tripped over his own feet. She laughed a little as picked himself up and came to a stop next to her.

She raised her eyebrows, "You sure you're Kid Flash, cause that was definitely not very flashy." She chuckled at her own pun.

"Haha, very funny." Wally commented as he caught his breath. "I'll have you know, it is very hard to run at a normal pace, or even walk for that matter." He astutely retorted.

"Really?" Tilted her head, not believing him.

He smiled, "You think I just woke up one day and could break the sound barrier, then I just went off and walked to school?"

"Kinda." She muttered shrugging.

"Well, I'll have you know you are very wrong, for like a week after getting my powers I could barely walk straight. Let alone run normally. I had to do yoga and ballet and all that crap. But it really helped me not break everything in my house. And I still do the stuff now so I can still be on the cross county team, without giving away my secret."

The two of them stood there silently for a few minutes while they waited for the bus. "I take all AP classes." She muttered without taking her eyes off her shoes.

"What?" Wally asked, confused.

"You asked me earlier."

"Oh. Well ok then?" He was still a bit confused, seeing the opportunity to make some conversation. "Hey do you by any chance remember where you were three years ago on the night the particle accelerator exploded." Wally had remembered Barry telling him, that most of the metas had gotten their powers that night. Aside from Wally who had made his own powers. To the people of Central City, the night the accelerator exploded was basically the night everything changed forever, everyone remembered what happened.

"I think I was at home that night Why?"

"Nothing, it's just that the particle accelerator explosion gave all the metas their powers by exposing them to dark matter and a bunch of science stuff. Anyway like a lot of the meta powers somehow relate to what the person was doing when it happened. The Flash was struck by lightning, Pied Piper was experimenting with sound waves and so on and so on. I was just curious."

"Well I don't think I was doing anything with fire or heat, then again that was a while ago" She replied, a few quiet moments passed.

"What were you doing that night, I know you mentioned something earlier about getting your powers from science. But like how?"

He chuckled, "Well that's the funny thing, I wasn't here when the accelerator exploded. I lived in Key Stone at that point. I actually got my powers by finding the Flashes research on his powers and replicated it. Which is probably why I'm so a lot slower than him and can't do as much as he can." Wally was about to say something more when his pocket started to buzz. He picked up his phone.

"Hey….No I wasn't going to come today…..Sorry I was, um doing a project for school…" He improvised on the spot, "...Ok….Yup..I'll be there in a few….See ya soon...Ok.." He hung up the phone and sighed.

"Listen I'm super sorry to leave you here, but like I really gotta go." He apologized

"It's fine, I can get home on my own."

"Great. Bye." He was about to speed off, "Also don't think we're done talking about you and your" he wiggled his fingers like fire." Before Mandy could say anything Wally wooshed away and was gone.

 _ **Hi, everyone so I'm finally off from school and am finally a Sophomore! Yeah! Anyway now I'll have time to write and go to the beach and all that fun summer stuff! Hope all of you guys passed your exams and are excited about a break. Have an amazing day!**_

 _ **~RedWillow03**_


	6. Realizations

"Mom, I'm home," Mandy called out as she unlocked the front door to her house. "Mom?" She asked again. She made her way to the kitchen. "Hello? Anyone here?" Mandy turned the corner and found a bright pink sticky note attached to a plate of leftover chicken.

 _Mandy,_

 _Your dad and I went to the homeowners meeting. Heat this on three fifty for ten minutes in the oven. Be home by eleven._

 _-Mom_

"Ok well that's nice, you couldn't have just sent me a text or told me this morning. Thanks a lot, Mom." She grumbled to the air as she opened the microwave and placed the plate inside.

"Now what?" She asked no one and glanced around the room. Seeing her computer on the couch Mandy picked it up and lazily scrolled through Pinterest. The timer on the microwave went off and she managed a few bites of the tough meat. Her mother had never had a pension for cooking in the first place, adding a few days and microwaving it probably didn't help either, but food was food.

Mandy picked the computer up again and on a whim searched Kid Flash. A million results appeared. She clicked on the most recent video. It was an aerial view of the city, two streaks, one red and the other yellow, racing up and down the streets. And Mandy had to admit it was pretty cool, to watch.

Realizing she wasn't going to find out any useful information by looking up his alter ego, Mandy elected to go a less traditional route. She easily accessed the school's records system as she had done, the month before to gain access to her own records so the school wouldn't question her sudden ' _medical condition'_.

She started skimming his file and quickly realized, Wally wasn't joking when he said science prodigy. He had a 4.0 and was taking AP Trigonometry, along with two AP sciences. His English and history grades needed some work, but were certainly nothing to scoff at.

Mandy continued scrolling through the file, apparently, he was also a star member of the cross country team and made varsity as a freshman. "No doubt he sped things up a little their." Mandy muttered to herself.

She dove deeper into the file, it was mostly just teacher comments and report cards, but then she came across, a report from the school's counselor, detailing some sort of traumatic event. Only parts of the document were there, but from what Mandy could gather, it had something to do with his parents. After that there was no other mention of the event.

Intrigued by her findings and being the nosy girl she was, Mandy started to search the web for more information. She tried searching Wally West, but all she got were a million of the wrong Wally Wests. Next, she tried Wallace West; nothing but a real estate agent in Metropolis.

After many many attempts she went with a different angle, Rudolph and Mary West, maybe searching his parent's names would turn up more results. And boy was she right, as soon as Mandy clicked search. A million news articles filled her screen. She clicked the first one and started to read.

It turned out to be an article from the Keystone City Chronicles, and the basic gist of it was, that late one Sunday night, Wally's aunt came to his house unannounced and saw her brother, Rudolph, beating Wally (who was about eleven at the time). Mary West tried to convince Iris, to keep quiet and that everything was fine, then Rudolph tried to assure his sister that it had been an accident, but by that time she knew exactly what was happening. Iris tried to get Wally (who had been only semi-conscience at the time) away from Rudolph, however, he become violent towards her. Since Rudolph was considerably drunk, and Iris knew self defense she was able to distract him until the Flash, who somehow knew to show up, arrived on the scene along with local police and an ambulance.

After the incident, both Rudolph and Mary were taken into custody. Rudolph for child abuse among other crimes and Mary for being complacent in the abuse. After the trial that took place several months later both were sentenced to prison; Mary for five years and Rudolph for fifteen.

Wally, after being treated for a broken arm, along with a multitude of injuries that hadn't healed properly the first time, was released two weeks later into the home of his Aunt Iris and her husband Barry Allen.

The article went on to talk about the way child abuse is looked at and dealt with along with a bunch of other political things, but she had stopped reading by that point. Mandy took a breath and reflected on what she had read. The happy, energetic, sarcastic boy she barely knew had been abused as a child. She decided to log off deeming that she had dove way to deep into Wally's personal life.

Shortly after Mandy, started to get ready for bed. And the crinkle of her metallic sheets filled the house, something was bothering her, that name from the article Barry Allen? Where had she heard that name before?

* * *

"Hey Wally, whatcha doin?" Barry asked, as he strutted into Wally's room with a basket of neatly folded laundry. The two had just gotten back from stopping Captain Cold and Mirror Master from freezing the Mirror Museum, and Barry for some reason no one could understand enjoyed doing laundry to relieve stress and relax.

Wally glanced up from his computer screen, "Just some homework, thanks for the laundry." He diligently returned to his screen.

As most speedsters were Barry excessively noisy, "Anything I can help with?" He happily offered, walking over to the desk and peering at the screen. "Are those Meta-Destabilization Gloves?" He asked.

Wally froze, "Ummm..yeah. In history, we're doing a research paper on.. Metahuman history…" He sputtered out, hoping he seemed convincing.

"Oh. Well, that's cool. You know I actually developed the technology for them." Barry proudly proclaimed.

"You did?" Wally suspiciously responded.

"Yup." He grinned, "Originally I designed them for meta prisoners, originally they were handcuffs, but later I redesigned them for you." He paused looked more scrutinizingly at the screen. "Although the ones here are very..um.. Odd? I guess I mean look at the carbon fitting and components on those gloves. Purely from looking at them it seems like they would be quite painful." Barry frowned.

"How so?" Wally asked

"Well their very similar to the ones I originally designed, but there's a reason I didn't go with a carbon fiber. There are just too many unforeseen variables: the metas powers, age, DNA structure and other countless factors. So I instead created a chip and used a small hardware device."

"So they wouldn't work?" Wally wondered, confused.

"Not necessarily, it would still serve a general purpose of preventing powers. But the molecules in the carbon fiber would be really stressed?" Barry struggled to find the right word to describe the fascinating phenomenon. "Its kinda like when someone gets really stressed and end up trying to do everything at once, and often times panic. The molecules move really fast creating friction on the DNA molecules."

"So it would leave a rash or burn?"

"No, strangely enough, it only brushes up against DNA, which isn't really that bad it just causes a lot of pain and discomfort because of the friction and electrical impulses. According to the study group, we tested them on it felt similar to when your hands or feet are asleep and all tingly only much more intense."

Wally furrowed his eyebrows, "So if you didn't use this kind of tech for my bracelets, what'd you use?"

"Well you know Vibe, right?" Wally nodded, he'd met Vibe before when he consulted for a case, "He has the power to travel to alternate universes, the only problem is each universe vibrates at a different frequency. So when he or any other meta travels to another dimension they can't use their powers. Since it was really inconvenient for Vibe to not use his powers on the other earths, he developed a technology that could cast a field around him and disrupt the vibration frequency around him allowing him to use his powers.

And for a mission a few years ago I had to travel to another dimension with him so he gave me one of these devices because that was around that time I learned that if I run fast enough under the right circumstances I can travel to different dimensions. After that I fooled around with using a carbon fiber design similar to the gloves, but after I found out about the downsides. I focused on redesigning Vibes technology and figured out how to reverse the tech so that it instead causes the person to vibrate on a different frequency and I used this to create dampening devices that are used in the prisons and later when you got your powers made the handcuffs into bracelets.

"Ohhh." Wally nodded understanding, "So they bracelets work universally for all metas?"

Barry shook his head, "In a way, yes, but to do that, DNA has to be extracted from the individual and then calculated to the dynamics of the bracelets. Anyway, I gotta go finish folding Iris' laundry."

"See you at dinner, Uncle B, thanks for the help." Once Barry had left, Wally turned back to his screen and frowned, the discoveries he had made were troubling. Did Mandy's parents know the gloves hurt her? Did the gloves hurt her? What was he supposed to do?

For a while Wally just sat there considering his options; he could confront Mandy with his new found information, but what if he was wrong or worse what if he was right? If he was right what was he supposed to do, the bracelets were programed for him?

Suddenly Wally shot out of his chair and vigorously began to search his hell hole of a room, he had an idea and it might have been a stupid one, but it was an idea all the same.

He continued searching for about ten minutes, which in speedster time was an eternity. Finally having found his prize he plopped down at his desk and started examining the bracelet. He hadn't needed it since right after he had gotten his powers. At that time things were different, he had only recently found out his uncle was the Flash and both his parents had just been sent to prison. Things were complicated back then..heck things were complicated now.

Wally turned one of the thick black cuffs over in his hand, searching for the seams of the material. After locating the stitching he grabbed a pair of scissors from his desk and undid the seems, when the piece of what could only be described as a leather-like fabric was pulled back, it revealed complex wiring and circuit boards.

"Well that's gonna be a problem," He sighed as he carefully placed the bracelet on the table, and sighed. He didn't know a thing about coding or computers. "It's gonna be a long night."

 _ **I will admit that last part of the chapter was badly worded and hard to understand but hopefully you got the gist of it. Anyway, I hope you all have a good weekend and are having a fun summer! Also, tell me what you think; and thanks to all who like, favorite and comment.**_

 _ **~RedWillow03**_


	7. Friends?

The bell for fourth period rang just as Mandy was sitting down, she promptly opened her notebook and was a little surprised and frankly creeped out to find a note from Wally. 'How the hell did he get this here?' she thought to herself as started babbling on about how she found a squirrel in her car. The note really irked her too.

 _ **Meet me in the old library after school, so we can talk.**_

 _ **-Wally**_

It was barely a request, more like a demand. She rolled her eyes, crumbled the note and stuffed it in her backpack. Mandy silently suffered through the rest of Chemistry then continued on with her day.

Up until last period she had all but forgotten the note, but then she suddenly remembered and another wave of annoyance passed over her. But nevertheless, when the bell rang she picked up her bag and headed towards her locker. Mandy swiftly grabbed the books she would need for the weekend then headed to the old wing of the school.

When Mandy arrived Wally was already there waiting, flipping through a long forgotten book. "Ok, I'm here," Mandy muttered as she tossed her coat and bag onto a table.

Wally turned around from the bookshelf. He had a tight smile on his face, "Sit down." Wally's voice was grim, so unlike his usual bantery voice.

"Ok?" Mandy said, a little concerned as he sat down across from her,"What's up?"

"Well, I was doing some research yesterday, about metahuman dampening technology. And what I found really worried me." Mandy didn't look him in the eye, realizing where the conversation was heading. "Are you ok?" Wally said it so earnestly that it made almost her believe he cared.

Mandy hesitated with her answer, trying to seem like she didn't know what he was implying. "Uhm..I'm fine, I guess..What do you mean?" She plastered on a fake smile.

"Mandy, don't lie to me. I know about the pain those gloves can inflict. Please, just tell me the truth." When Mandy's smile fell away and she looked up at him her watery eyes meeting Wally's kind caring gaze, she slowly nodded. Knowing that if she tried to talk she would fully break down in tears.

After a moment of Mandy composing herself and Wally thinking about what Mandy had implied someone finally spoke, "But really, Wally I'm fine." Her voice quivered, "It's..it's worth it for the protection they give me….please just leave it alone."

"What if there was another way, what if you didn't have to wear the gloves?" Wally said

Mandy signed, "I've told you before Wally I don't want to learn to use my powers, just leave it alone." She pleaded.

He gave a bit of a grin back, "Actually I have a better idea." Wally bent down to his backpack and pulled out a giant packet of papers along with two bracelets. He handed her the packet, "I spent all last night learning how to code, how circuits work along with a bunch of other sciency stuff so that I could reprogram the bracelets I wore as a kid so that they would work on you."

Mandy raised her eyebrows in surprise, "I'm sorry what?" She asked in shock.

"Well on different earths, yeah there are different earths; cool right, on them foreign metas from other earths can't use their powers because of how everyone vibrates at the same frequency as the earth they live on. So like my uncle developed these for prisons and when I got my powers adapted them for me. What they do is cause the person to vibrate on a different frequency thus preventing meta powers in a more stable way." His smile was so big.

"Still confused, sorry," Mandy replied.

"Doesn't matter how they work, the point is they won't hurt you. Also, they're less noticeable than the gloves."

Finally realizing what he meant Mandy's eyes widened, "Are you serious?" He nodded furiously, "Are you sure they're gonna work?" She smiled.

"We'll just have to try them." He grinned back. "You ready?"

"Yes, no, maybe. You know what let's just get this over with and try." He handed her the bracelets.

To distract from what she was about to do Mandy tried some small talk, "So how's life going?" She mumbled as she slowly started to remove one of her gloves, gritting her teeth against the pain.

"Fine, I guess. How's your life going?" He awkwardly responded.

"Good." Finally, the first glove was off and before it even had a chance to spark Mandy placed the bracelet on her wrist. At first glance, the material looked like cloth but once she put it on she realized they were really some kind of leather, not like the scratchy reptile like leather her gloves were made of but a softer kind.

Mandy glanced up at Wally, "You made these?"

"Well not quite, my uncle Barry did, but I reprogram them so you could use them."

She started to remover her other glove, "You learned how to code in less than a day?" Mandy suspiciously asked.

"Basically." He shrugged, "One of the perks of being a speedster, I can read books and absorb info faster. The information usually doesn't last more than a few hours but long enough for me to code these."

"No way, I refuse to believe it." She shook her head.

He smirked. "Ok want me to prove it?" She nodded and he picked up a book from one of the dusty shelves. "Everything You Need To Know to Start a Farm," He flipped through the pages. It didn't even look like he was reading. "A potential farmer can enroll in a university or college and major in programs such as agricultural economics, agriculture, farm management, or dairy science. Students can pursue an associate's degree and take classes in animal science, conservation of natural resources, farmer science, and principles of horticulture. Although other options are available, such as apprenticing for local farms or butchers. When considering a career in farming one must also consider the ups and downs. I could go on if you'd like?" He gave her a shit eating grin, as she giggled at how astutely he stated the facts.

"Fine ok I believe you, just stop it's so boring." She pleaded.

"Alright, alright." He sat back down and watched her pull off the second glove. Once off the hand was immediately engulfed in flames.

"Crap." She started to wave it around trying to put it out.

"Hold on I got it." Wally stood up and pulled a fire extinguisher out from behind his backpack. He pulled the tab and sprayed it at her hand, though it ended up going everywhere. Once the fire was out he wooshed out of the room and grabbed some paper towels from the bathroom across the hall. "Sorry. I think I may have missed...a lot." He gestured to her whole body, there was foam everywhere

"Ya think?" Mandy said wiping the foam from her eyes. He offered her the paper towels and she took them gratefully. Once she was mostly cleaned up she placed the bracelet on her wrist and just kinda sat there waiting.

"Uhh, Mandy?" Wally asked.

"Yeah what."

"You ok? You're kinda just sitting there?"

"How else am I supposed to know if they work?"

"That's a fair point." He sighed, realizing she was right. "I guess we could just wait here for an hour or something."

"Fine with me." The two of them sat there in silence awkwardly for a minute or two. "Wanna play cards?"

"Oh thank god, I was going insane with the quiet. Sure." Wally responded.

Mandy bent down and got a deck from her bag, "I usually play Solitary during lunch," she explained as she shuffled and dealt the cards. "Go Fish?"

"Sounds good."

* * *

 **Time skip 15 minutes later**

"Got any 10's?"

"Go Fish."

"Not again."

"Deal with it." Mandy grinned. "Hey you know I gotta ask, how did you get that note in my notebook?"

Wally smiled, "Elementary my dear girl, knowing that you had the period after me I was able to quickly open your backpack and put the note into your notebook in less than .13 seconds."

Mandy rolled her eyes, "Show off."

"Well you know you could show off to if you tried," He was about to continue when Mandy gave the longest most annoyed sigh to ever be given.

"Seriously no. We have been over this like twenty times. Drop it, Wally." She shook her head and changed the topic, "Got any 5's?"

"Here." He handed her a two fives, with a sullen look on his face.

"Common don't be like that. Just because I don't want to use my powers doesn't mean I'm gonna die alone or like be miserable my whole life."

"I know it's just… I'm kinda pissed at the world that metas have to like hide and what not. Maybe there'd be less evil rogues if like there were support groups and pride days or something. Or at least be able to say out loud that you're a meta without like being run out of town with pitchforks and torches. Like, think about it, awhile ago Superman was replaced by an evil clone of himself for a few hours and the clone destroyed a bunch of stuff.

Everyone in Metropolis hated him for a solid six months. Like we can't do anything wrong or else we are instant monsters, and that's Superman, he's the most likable guy out there. It's like, they'll let us save them, but they prosecute anyone who doesn't fit in the normal human mold.

And I'm sick of it, you know I read a statistic once that said, 89% of metahumans are evil because they feel as if they don't have a choice. Either be evil or be good, and they chose evil cause it seems like the easier option. I'm just..just so tired of it all...seriously can't there just be a place, where meta's can not worry about getting mad and breaking a table or having someone flinch when they sneeze." Wally laid back in his chair hands on face.

"Uh...Wally?" Mandy asked a little concerned as he started to vibrate through the chair.

"What?" He asked sitting back up, only to realize what was happening. "Damn it." Wally took a few deep breaths and slowly stood up, stopped vibrating and sat back down. Only to realize he had a nosebleed. "Seriously?!" He grumbled grabbing one of the unused paper towels and held it to his nose.

After a second of just sitting in her seat bewildered, Mandy finally spoke up. "You good?"

"Yeah." He sighed, "I just needed to rant. Then I got stressed and anxious and stuff so I started to vibrate."

"And the nosebleed?" She asked.

"Ah, another wonderful part of not being as amazing as the Flash. Anyway, I think it's your turn."

"Ok. Any two's?

"Go Fish."

Mandy grabbed a card from the pile. "Hey this has been bothering me, is it Flash or The Flash?"

Wally chuckled, "Honestly I don't have a clue, and at this point, I think it's too late to ask."

She smiled, they continued on in near silence, till Mandy abruptly said, "No one's inherently evil. Every choice is made of thought and reason, it's just when people are scared they revert to a place of fear and instinct that goes back to when we were a society of hunter and gatherers. It's called fight or flight, the so-called evil metas simply chose to fight in a counterproductive way, trying to survive by stealing and causing havoc. Those who chose flight, run away from their problems and ignore them until it's too late."

"The world is a really screwed up place."

"Yeah." The two sat reflecting on what had been said, "Wally?"

He blinked out of his thoughts, "Yes."

"Thank you." Wally tilted his head confused. "You made me confront myself, and gave me a new way of dealing with this screwed up reality. You're a true friend." She smiled. And he nodded back. "Also I win."

.

.

.

 _ **Well, that was a cute little bundle of fluff and angst. I hope you all enjoyed it and please review! I'm having some writers block and could really use the feedback, what should happen next? Anyway have a great evening,**_

 _ **~RedWillow03**_


	8. Smashed Hopes

Mandy quietly thanked the bus driver as she left the bus, she started for her house and smiled as she realized how nice the day was. Now that she had her gloves off everything felt lighter somehow, the greens were greener the sun brighter. Everything was gonna be ok. And maybe she had started a friendship with an understanding speedster.

She made her way up the driveway and unlocked the door before she opened it she took a deep. Maybe, now that she didn't have to wear the gloves her parents wouldn't be so awkward around her anymore. Things could finally go back to normal. Mandy opened the door after a minute or so, "Mom, Dad I'm home." She called out. "Sorry, I'm a little late."

Her mom sat on the couch reading a book, "It's fine sweetheart," Her mom paused as she looked up from the book. Her eyebrows creased as she looked Mandy over.

Mandy raised an eyebrow, "Is something wrong Mom?"

Her mother's face tensed into a tight-lipped, forced smile, "Honey,..where are your gloves." The tone of her voice was laced with condescension and annoyance.

Mandy hesitated before replying, "Their..uh.. in my backpack. I was able to find a replacement for them, that works better." Mentioning Wally only would have raised suspicion and questions.

"Oh..well isn't that nice." She responded, then turned back to her book.

"Ok? Well, I'll see you at dinner." Mandy said as she turned towards the stairs.

Her room was just as dismal and sad, but now that her powers were a bit more under control maybe her parents would let her go back to how it used to be. Mandy sighed as she dreamed of a world where she only had to have one fire extinguisher in her room instead of nine.

She picked up one of her books that she had sneaked into the house a few weeks earlier but had been too nervous to read. Her parents concerned had started to get to her. Perhaps the book might have burst into flames. What would she have done then? Her parents would have found out she disobeyed them and would have had their point proven, despite knowing it was only a remote possibility at the time, she still guiltily persuaded her self at the time.

But now without them and their painful twitching, she could read with no worries. Mandy picked up the book one of her favorites of the Nancy Drew series, she knew it was childish but old habits die hard.

Mandy read for nearly two hours until dinner was called, "Coming" She shouted down to her mother, stashing the book.

She scurried down the stairs, things could finally be ok again. "Smells amazing mom." She commented, with a grin.

Her mother nodded with a fake smile, Mandy's face fell, "What's wrong mom?" She skeptically asked.

She waved away the question, gesturing for Mandy to take a seat, "Ok?"

Mandy's father sternly walked in with a bit more aggression than usual, but she had gotten used to this harsher more serious version of her Dad. "Hi dad, how was your day?"

"Fine, I guess," He rubbed his nose and sat down at the head of the table. Her father glanced at her hands, "Sweetheart, where are your gloves, I thought we talked about this?"

"Mandy paled a bit under her father's gaze, "Yes, I remember. But..well.." Before she could defend herself, her mother shared a glance with her father, he nodded. "You know honey me and your mother have been thinking about sending you to this special camp?"

"What?" Mandy wondered, "It's still the first semester there aren't any long breaks or weekends coming up, is it like a night camp or something?" Her suspicions raised when her mother wouldn't look her in the eye.

"It's more of a special school for a few weeks, I promise you'll get all you're work done. It's just, your mother and I think it would be better if you were with people who could understand you and help you."

"With school..?" Her voice faded as she noticed where he was looking. Her hands. "..Dad.." Mandy's voice seemed so small. "..I..dad you can't.. don't.." She couldn't even talk now. Fear filled her every breath.

"Mandy, it's a wonderful campus. And the can be here tomorrow to pick you up and we'll visit all the time…"

She cut him off standing. "Mom?" Her mother looked down in her own lap. She ran to her room. Panicking. She'd heard of those places, on the dark web, they called them camps but they were much much worse. Doing genetic testing and experiments to find a 'cure' as they called it.

Mandy heard her father coming up the stairs, she rushed to the door locking it. Thank god for the titanium backing. Her parents had thought she might accidentally explode in her sleep, so they outfitted the walls of her room with it, strengthening them.

"Mandy, honey come on let me in." He pleaded.

She backed against the wall, sliding down head in hands, what was she supposed to do?

 _ **I am so sorry this took so long to finish I have been swamped with work and practice, Sophomore year is kicking my ass. There will probably only be one or two more chapters, and I'm not quite sure yet how I'm going to end it. Have a great day and remember to be amazing!**_

 _ **~RedWillow03**_


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